North Korea prepares controversial rocket launch

Rare images from North Korea – Technicians check the North Korean satellite launch vehicle Unha-3 on the launch pad at the Sohae Satellite Launching Center on April 8.

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Rare images from North Korea – The usually secretive North Korea organised an unprecedented visit for foreign reporters to Tongchang-ri space centre on April 8. During the train journey from Pyongyang to the North Pyongan Province, a journalist took this picture of a North Korean soldier standing at an observation post.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korean women are seen from the window of the train as they work on a paddy field, April 8, 2012.

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Rare images from North Korea – The train passes by a small town on the way to the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang in the country's north-west.

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Rare images from North Korea – A troupe of North Korean soldiers is seen marching along the railway, carrying flags.

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Rare images from North Korea – A North Korean soldier stands guard in front of the Unha-3 rocket during a media tour of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station on April 8, 2012.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korea announced last month that it would launch a rocket carrying a satellite between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the Communist state.

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Rare images from North Korea – A North Korean cameraman films a map showing the site where the Unah-3 rocket is being prepared for launch.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korean technicians work at the control room of the Tongchang-ri space center on April 8. The North Korean regime insists it's launching a satellite, not testing a missile.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korean officials and foreign journalists leave the launch pad after a visit to see the rocket Unha-3 at the space center on April 8.

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Story highlights

North Korea says it plans to launch a rocket carrying a satellite this month

Other countries say the move is a cover for a ballistic missile test

Journalists are granted rare access at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station

As North Korea presses forward with a controversial rocket launch, journalists were granted a rare glimpse Sunday of the reclusive country's preparations.

CNN was part of a group taken to the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, in the northwest part of the country.

North Korea announced last month that it would launch a rocket carrying a satellite between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the Communist state. His birthday on April 15, known as the "Day of the Sun," is a key public holiday in the North Korean calendar.

Pyongyang says the operation is for peaceful purposes, but Japan, the United States and South Korea see the launch as a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.

Firing the long-range rocket would breach U.N. Security Council resolutions, and Washington has suspended a recent deal to provide food aid to North Korea as a result. Japan has said it will shoot down any part of the rocket that enters its territory.

"If you look for yourselves with your own eyes, then you can judge whether it's a ballistic missile, or whether it's a launch vehicle to put a satellite into orbit," Jang Myong Jin, head of the launch site, said through a translator. "That's why we've invited you to this launch site."

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Guided launch pad tour in North Korea

Journalists -- who were not allowed to take laptops or cell phones to the site, but were permitted to film -- were shown the control center and the satellite that officials said would be shot into space.